Unrelenting Effort Makes Me Happy

Poplar Creek Prairie – Forest Preserves of Cook County

Grassland Stewardship Network Field Seminar
June 5, 2018

Participants

- John Navin (volunteer, Poplar Creek – FPCC)

- Jenny Flexman (volunteer, Poplar Creek/Schaumburg Road Grasslands – FPCC)

- Troy Showerman (staff, Forest Preserves of Cook County)

- Ken Klick (staff, Lake County Forest Preserves)

- Daniel Suarez (staff, Audubon Great Lakes)

- Joe Suchecki (volunteer, Springbrook Prairie – Forest Preserve District of DuPage County)

- Pat Hayes (volunteer, Orland Grassland – FPCC)

- Randy Holtz (volunteer, Spring Creek – FPCC)

- Eriko Kojima (volunteer, Somme Preserves – FPCC)

- Mike McNamee (volunteer, Orland Grassland – FPCC)

- Stephen Packard (volunteer, Somme Preserves – FPCC)

- Chuck Scannell (volunteer, Bartel Grassland – FPCC)

- Steve Smith (volunteer, Citizens for Conservation)

- Paul Swanson (volunteer, Somme Preserves – FPCC, Nachusa Grassland – TNC)

- Teri Valenzuela (staff, Audubon Great Lakes)

- Marnie Baker (volunteer, Orland Grassland – FPCC)

The Poplar Creek Prairie Stewards manage about 300 acres at this site. They’ve done an astounding job for almost three decades. We professional and volunteer stewards had assembled to walk the site and learn from each other. 

Waving the flags for invasives.

John Navin gave an intro, holding pink flags: “I never go anywhere without these.” He uses them to mark patches of crown vetch or bird’s-foot trefoil. He claims that he doesn’t worry much about other invasives. “I distinguish between invasives and invaders,” he said, “We used to worry about teasel and a long list, but all I worry about these days is the invaders – crown vetch and bird’s-foot trefoil.”

The rest of us, still worried about a good deal more, were eager to learn John’s secrets. But as we began to hike out into the prairie, some of us noticed patches of grass turning brown that looked a lot like reed canary grass. “So you’re still battling reed canary?” someone asked. 

“Oh, the contractors get that,” he said. It turns out that John doesn’t worry about it because others on the team get it. It’s a given, handled, not a problem for John any more. 

I asked, rhetorically, “So do you suppose the Forest Preserve staff deserve some credit here?”

In response, John exploded with lavish praise for the District land management staff and contractors. He does very deeply appreciate them, but perhaps takes them for granted. I made a “note to self.” If we don’t highlight the teamwork, we won’t be strengthening it as we need to. Forest Preserves are public agencies, and as such they live or die with democracy. If there’s insufficient support, funding won’t grow and likely could diminish. 

We walked through prairie restoration, heading northwest toward a high hill topped with the very high-quality Shoe Factory Road Prairie Nature Preserve. Soon we saw high-quality restoration patches where dense brush had been cut not all that long ago. 

“I’ll tell you what our secret is,” said Navin. “Perseverance. You can’t just cut, plant, and leave. You have to come back three years in a row to wipe out re-sprouts, and then you keep inter-seeding for years after that.” 

Forest Preserve staffer Troy Showerman expanded on this idea in writing as he reviewed a draft of this post: 

“One part that … seems important, was the discussion on patience. … There was a lot of talk about managing dogwood in the early days and how now fire more or less keeps it in check.  Also that they initially ignored tall goldenrod and that it was slowly out competed, burned out, or some combo of both.  That  was good insight to me on sometimes letting things work themselves out when it is easy to get bogged down in the short term chasing around every last invasive.  Focus on getting the worst invasives, burns, seeds, and give the site time to heal.”

Jenny Flexman compared the management of this site at Shoe Factory Road Woods with the group’s newer effort to restore the poetically-named Schaumburg Road Grasslands, across Golf Road to the south. “One focus there, from the beginning, has been improved grassland bird habitat,” she said. “We knock down the brush enough to get sufficient grass fuel for good burns. But we haven’t planted the taller grasses, in part because they’ll do fine without help, and in part because the birds seem to respond better to the shorter grasses.” 

 

Volunteers and staff have worked on Poplar Creek Prairie for three decades.

Flexman said the burn program at Poplar Creek Prairie was different from Schaumburg Road.  Poplar Creek burns about once every two years, on a revolving schedule. Navin suggested he might prefer to burn even more, but he’d always reserve unburned areas for invertebrates, snakes, and other animals that might need it. Flexman said grassland birds do best with less frequent burns. “At Schaumburg, the average plot is burned once every three years,” he said. The two stewards said they couldn’t prove cause and effect, but they agreed that the grassland birds are a lot more plentiful at Schaumburg. Indeed, to me, a great surprise, during the entire morning, I didn’t see or hear a single meadowlark, savanna sparrow, sedge wren, or any other grassland bird with the exception of a single bobolink. In my memory, Poplar Creek used to have more. 

Grassland bird expert Joe Suchecki confirmed that in his experience “Indian grass is a real problem.” Indian, big blue, and the other tallest grasses “wipe out the grassland birds,” he said. Where the taller grasses had taken over, the grassland birds were gone. 

I asked Joe if he found that diversity had an impact. Some people have noticed great increases in grassland birds at sites like Nachusa Grasslands, where the tall grasses are in the planting mixes. One possibility difference is that they are less dominant when there’s sufficient competition from shorter grasses, forbs, etc. 

Joe replied, uncomfortably it seemed, “Well yes, but the opposite of what you’re after.” He said that the best grassland habitat for birds at Springbrook is pure, alien meadow fescue. And it’s true, fields of short, Eurasian, cool-season grasses are a good habitat for many now-rare grassland birds. But it’s not a habitat for a great many other grassland species, especially the invertebrates, so people keep working to restore habitats that are good for the whole. 

There's a nice video of Joe on the DuPage FP website.

Mike McNamee gave a different perspective from the Orland Grassland: “Indian grass has worked well for the birds at Orland,” he said. Part of Audubon’s purpose in organizing these “field seminars” is to wrestle with questions like this. How can we learn more about the practical, scientific, and organizational questions that land managers face?

Daniel Suarez said, “In many grasslands around this region, imperiled birds like Bobolink tend to nest mostly in cool-season, non-native-dominated grasslands rather than prairie restorations. We need to learn how to make restorations that work for bobolinks.”

As we neared the fence that enclosed Shoe Factory Road Prairie, Navin pointed out that there’s been a challenge to get people to understand its special status as an Illinois Nature Preserve. People used to dig gentians out of it, he said. Not when they were blooming. These criminal poachers had some expertise.

 

View from the top of the Shoe Factory hill shows the large restored prairie reaching to the oak woodland.

The very high-quality prairie here had been a couple-acre postage stamp, surrounded by trees and brush. Now it blends into two hundred acres of restoration – the best being the expanding edges of that original prairie, flowing down the slopes where the brush once stood. Some seed just travelled on its own, but most of the restoration success depends on seed gatherers and sowers. John proudly said that the Poplar Creek Prairie Stewards have 12 to 15 seed leaders who know their stuff and help scores of volunteers gather and spread massive amounts of seed. “We have three scheduled seed-collecting workdays per week, plus much individual and small group work on other days.” 

The nature preserve is treated differently from the rest of the site. Pretty much the whole preserve has been burned annually for the last 12 years. John Navin credited the annual burning with a three-fold increase in forbs (wildflowers), but he seemed dubious about leaving no refuge patches. A number of people mentioned that in small high-quality grasslands, it’s been seen as good practice to leave part unburned for invertebrates that are sensitive to fire. Other experts, including some of Cook County FP ecology staff, believe that annual burning is better and that the invertebrates do fine. 

For this write up, Forest Preserve Ecologist Chip O’Leary (who had been unable to attend the field seminar) provided this perspective:

The frequent burning was intended to ramp up flowering & seed set and foster quicker plant recovery. In recent years, we have sliced out an area within or immediately adjacent to the nature preserve as an insect refuge. I know the info on fire-effects is incomplete and still being debated, but we felt some level of caution was warranted. Our thought is that the restoration work done by the Poplar group has created a very nice high diversity skirt around the preserve that ought to harbor prairie insects and provide a buffer and recolonization source should there be impacts from fire – we have used part of that as a no-burn zone. Additionally, imagery of post-burns shows unburned pockets within the preserve which have the potential to be refugia.

Concern was expressed about people who are “afraid to intervene” in nature – using the lack of mature science as a crutch. “Let’s wait until we know more;” so they don’t act. 

Steve Smith of Citizens for Conservation asked a question about research generally: “This discussion sounds all anecdotal. Isn’t there research that answers these questions?”

Daniel Suarez said that he’s learned a lot from burn research at Konza Prairie in Kansas. Ken Klick encouraged us all to monitor vegetation transects and animal populations as much as we can, and learn as we manage. Jenny Flexman questioned how much typical academic studies have to offer. “Most look at one or two variables in a very complex system, and where there’s great variation from site to site.” A lot of what makes restoration successful is staff and volunteer stewards passing on what has been successful. As Ken Klick put it, “We’re doing tremendous good. It’s working.” 

Not always, John Navin said, “I saw Palatine Prairie for the first time in many years. I couldn’t believe it. Crown vetch covers all the best original prairie. You can’t just walk away.” 

Ken Klick said, “Fire, herbicide, and deer removal are challenging to many people. Some stewards can be afraid to hurt what they love. We’re human. But we can’t let emotions inhibit needed work that has scientifically demonstrated good results.”

He also asked Navin and Flexman how they fostered volunteerism with such great expertise and energy. He asked, “What would you say about sites where stewards just want to cut brush and burn brush piles, and then they’re done?”    

Jenny Flexman said, “We were given a kind of ownership. We were told that the future of these precious plants and creatures depended in major ways on us. And we could see that it was true. We came together as a community. Not just the ecological, but also the social. We have people who greet new people, follow up with them after their first workdays, organize regular social events.” 

 We listened, we laughed, we thought, we learned.

Some people in the Poplar Creek group have adopted the prairie sedge Carex meadii– a visually obscure plant that is hard to gather seed from but which seems to be an important component of the more diverse prairies. Perhaps it’s part of the complexity that may ultimately be good for grassland bird habitat structure. According to John Navin, “They’re raising and will be planting plugs of Carex meadii– that will slowly spread, over the decades to come.” That detailed work requires specific initiative by specific people. The Poplar Creek success with the invasives is similar. One volunteer, Kirk Garanflo, gets major credit – now jointly with the Forest Preserve contractors. (See Endnote 1.) 

Pay Hayes said, “At Orland, we don’t have people who want to lead separate parts. They all want to be part of one group that works together.” 

John Navin seemed troubled at that, “We need new people and we need new leaders,” he said. “Who’s going to be doing this 20 years from now?” (John Navin expands on these questions in Endnote 2.) That’s part of why Audubon’s Daniel Suarez organized this exchange.

There was general agreement that events like this help build the community of stewards that nature needs. As Jenny Flexman summarized: “Usually in June I spend all my time in nasty areas, spraying invasives. It’s great to share a walk through this health and beauty and consider how it’s going, over the years. Not just the learning, it’s a great feeling to be among many kindred spirits, doing similar wonderful work.” 

Endnotes

Endnote 1

Kirk Garanflo is a hero and an inspiration. I’d never properly met him, but his name has come up for years when I’d ask the Poplar Creek folks how their were coping with invaders. Researching Endnotes for this post, I had the excuse to ask him some questions, and he wrote right back, as follows.

Hello Steve,

Here are answers to your questions:

1. Do you have either words or statistics that summarize what you’ve accomplished at Poplar Creek?
The only statistic that I have is: 200 to 250 hours per year removing weeds (and some trash) beyond scheduled work days; most days I spend an hour or two at the site. I have eradicated (or greatly reduced) teasel, wild parsnip, Queen Anne’s lace, and garlic mustard in many areas (not because others have not done so, but because being retired now - or occasionally unemployed in the past - I have had the time to work in the same areas repeatedly during a growing season over a span of years). If a weed can not be prevented from reproducing, then there is no possibility of eradicating it; the availability of time has made this possible for me.

2. What’s your relationship like with the rest of the group? Do you lead workdays or portions of workdays? Are there a few people who especially work with you? Or do you work mostly solo?
For the most part now I work solo in areas of particular interest to me; Mondays through Fridays most of rest of the group are at their day jobs. If herbaceous weeds are targeted for a scheduled work day, then I often work with the group. Otherwise, I have planned for and work at something else.

Occasionally I have helped to supervise when a large group of inexperienced volunteers has shown up. Otherwise, no; I do not lead work days.

3. Do you and the staff/contractors coordinate?
I always keep either John Navin or Jenny Flexman (stewards for the main site or Schaumburg Road Grasslands, respectively) generally informed of my plans or tasks. They do coordinating with the Forest Preserve District of Cook County or the contractors; I prefer to only involve myself with one level of management, our stewards.

4. Have you written up procedures/recommendations for people generally?
No. When asked in the past I have written my approach to dealing with teasel and with wild parsnip. Currently I am conducting experiments with herbiciding and with mechanical removal of Lily-of-the Valley. This species is a small problem at Poplar Creek but a humongous problem at Bluff Spring Fen. While herbiciding can be effective, mechanically weed whipping (or clipping in really high quality and sensitive areas) early in the season before much else emerges would be less damaging and less labor intensive.
5. Do you have a great specific story or two that would help convey what you’ve faced?

I do not particularly care to have the first thing knowledgeable and experienced conservationists see upon entering our site is a lot of “crap”. At the edge of the main prairie at Poplar Creek there had been a 30 to 50 foot wide and 100' to 150' long band of wild parsnip, sweet clover, teasel, and reed canary grass. I and others have taken many years to eliminate them from that edge using scythes, hand clippers, and pulling (with herbiciding for the reed canary grass). It is unrelenting effort that has achieved this.

Within and surrounding the Shoe Factory Road Prairie Preserve I have worked to eliminate wild parsnip; the 1996 moratorium set back that effort by at least five years (the seed bank was replenished for a year), but eventually that objective was achieved. Other weeds, such as hound’s tongue, motherwort, thistle (Canada, bull, and musk), dame’s rocket, sweet clover, winter cress, and ox-eye daisy are yet to be eradicated, but their numbers are slowly being reduced. 

Comment from SP: I feel good about life to know that I’m sharing my efforts to heal nature with thousands of people, all contributing in different ways, and one is Kirk Garanflo. 

I have a lot more good material from Kirk that I'll try to include in a future post.

A person with Kirk's expertise would certainly be paid more than $50/hr for contract work. But, just for the thought experiment, at more than 200 hours, he's been contributing more than $10,000 per year for decades. Bless him. Of course, "It's nice work if you can get it" - given that he is doing exactly what he wants to do, exactly how he wants to do it!

Well, okay, one more note. I asked Openlands how much a contractor would charge for a weed-control person with that level of expertise. The answer was "about $125/hr." So at that rate, at 250 hrs/yr, Kirk would be contributing a value of over $30,000 per year. Hmmm, in thirty years it's about a million dollars. 

Endnote 2.

Below, John Navin expands on Palatine Prairie, persistence, and special projects, and more. 

It had been over 20 years since I visited Palatine Prairie. It had started to be taken over by vetch to such an extent that I doubted its capability to survive to any decent capacity. Having first visited 5-7 years previous and seen it in all its glory, I no longer wanted to view its steady decline. Perhaps the landowners have taken action to control the damage and it is good as new--one can hope.

I probably should have expanded on my discussion on not worrying too much about many invasives. Reed canary has obviously been a concern from the get go. The entire drainage from Shoe Factory road to Lake Leaky was once almost a mono culture of reed canary grass. Only within the last 6 years have contractors been able to reduce its presence immensely. The area has now been seeded with more conservatives, and plugs of carexes have been put in for a few years, 100 Carex buxbaumii within the last few weeks. As with many of our other invasives - Canada thistle, parsnip, sweet clover, tall goldenrod etc. - I have found there is a tipping point where the natives will be victorious. This will be quite obvious in the recent clearing east of the Nature Preserve. We will need to get the multiple large populations down to minimal numbers but, with constant yearly burning, within 3-5 years it should start to look quite decent.

I am also a BIG proponent of transplants and, surprisingly enough, Indian grass. Indian grass is great fuel, and we have found inserting plugs of even the most conservative species works just fine in a burnt, predominantly Indian grass landscape. So far this season we have transplanted white prairie clover, alum root, dropseed, short green milkweed, Carex meadii among other conservatives in early-years-planted restoration areas. Before the plug planting these areas had only the most common natives scattered within the Indian grass matrix - ratibida, monarda, rattlesnake master - the usual suspects. With somewhat frequent burns, they should all do quite well.

We have a new bird monitor at the site, and I was walking the birding transect with him 2 weeks ago. We saw and heard Bobolinks and Henslow sparrow while we walked the western part of the main prairie.

Finally, new stewards and volunteers is now the MOST critical issue for all natural areas throughout the region. Crown vetch and trefoil surround even our most precious sites and threaten certain doom. There is little doubt in my mind that if all volunteers disappeared tomorrow, in 25 years much of Poplar Creek and the Nature Preserve would be in a vanishing state. Perhaps I am overly pessimistic; at least I hope so!

Nature does increasingly well in many cherished reserves because so many fine people feel happy about our “unrelenting efforts” – which, as Kirk wrote, get easier over time. Many of us find it deeply rewarding to pull together on this. 

Thanks to everyone who reviewed, commented on, and helped improve this post including Daniel Suarez, Ken Klick, Troy Showerman, and John Navin. Thanks to Kathy Garness for a ton of helpful edits.

Bonus Photo:

Hundreds of wild hyacinths blooming in the restored oak woods south of the restored prairie.
Photo by Kirk Garanflo.